by Dale Mayer
“What about our stuff?” she asked from the back seat, trying to lean forward but not able to get too far.
“Not that we have anything important that can’t easily be replaced, but he’ll bring it all,” he said.
“Good,” she said, “and I’m happy to not go back to that same hotel. I’d never sleep again there.”
“Not sure I would either.”
“Sorry,” she said, “didn’t mean to scare you.”
He looked at her and shook his head. “You’re not responsible,” he said.
She sat back. “Feels like I am. I opened the door, when I wasn’t supposed to.”
“Yeah, for that, you’re responsible,” he said, with a chuckle.
“You told me that you were on your way up.”
“I know, and I should have been there. They saw us come in, or they were tracking our phones or had a listening device in the hotel,” he said. “I don’t know which it was, but it’s pretty shitty. And I’m sorry for what you went through.”
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “I’m just feeling a little rough still. Matter of fact, I feel like I’ll puke.”
“Put your head down between your legs,” he said, “and take a deep breath.”
She lowered her head and took several deep breaths. “It’s not that bad,” she said, slowly straightening up again. “It’s just been a rough day.”
“A rough couple days,” he said. “But better times ahead.”
She smiled at that.
He grinned at her through the rearview mirror. “You’re doing fine,” he said. “Remember that.”
“Thank you.”
He continued to follow the MI6 agent until they made it to the safe house. It looked like an apartment complex. They parked underground, the three of them following the agent. They ended up in an upstairs apartment.
The agent said, “I’ll come back in a little bit with the rest of your gear.” And they were locked in.
She looked around and said, “It’s two bedrooms and a couch in the living room.”
“Regardless of whether it’s a safe house or not,” Killian said, “we’ll be doing four-hour watches. You need to go to sleep.”
She shrugged and said, “I’m tired for sure. But, more than that, it’s the damn drugs.”
“Are you still feeling the effects of the chloroform or just sick to your stomach?” Jerricho asked her.
“Nauseated. Not like I still need to sleep or anything, just feel ill.”
“Go lie down,” he ordered.
She glared at him. “I will,” she said, “in my own time.”
He smiled. “Getting feisty again, huh?”
“Getting tired of being ordered around,” she said.
“Right,” he said. And then with exaggerated politeness, he said, “Would you please go lie down?”
She sighed. “Fine.” And she turned and flounced away.
Killian looked back at Jerricho. “Do you want first watch?”
“Yes. I’ll take possession of the delivery when it gets here. I ordered two laptops plus…” he said, “I want you to get your ass in bed.”
Killian shook his head.
“I’ll take the first watch, and then I’ll go lie down with her afterward.”
At that, Killian considered the matter and then nodded. “Okay, I’m good with that.” He went into the other bedroom.
Jerricho was relieved. He knew that he still needed some time to destress. He went and had a quick shower, even as he hated his nerves jangling at him. It would be a while before he forgot that blind panicky feeling after realizing that she was nowhere to be found. He blamed himself for that. He should have posted a guard, somebody, outside. Somebody, somewhere, should have been on the watch to make sure she was okay.
That part really would keep him up at night. Why? What was it about her that they wanted? Unless they understood that any connection to Jessie was something that they needed to eradicate. And that would be much harder to address.
When a text came in, he waited a few moments then brought in the package waiting for him. Grateful for the system that worked so well, he brought it inside and unpacked the top laptop. He turned it on and while it booted, he picked up his clothes.
Fully dressed again, he headed back out to the living room, put on some coffee, checked the fridge, and found sandwiches and some basic groceries. Pulling out one of the ready-made sandwiches, he sat down for a quick meal and a cup of coffee, while his mind churned through the details. Then he went back to his laptop, where he started bouncing ideas off Diesel.
Neither of them could quite understand the motivation as to why they had gone after Brenna, unless it was that theory about cleaning up threads. And the Mavericks had certainly seen that happen time and time again, but they couldn’t confirm it either way. Besides, if she truly were a thread to clean up, the gunman would have just killed her. So why kidnap her?
With his tummy full, he relaxed, as he thought about what had just gone down. The Jessie connection blew him away. But it was just so often the way things went. He checked his watch, realizing his four hours were half over. He smiled at that because the next two hours would be nothing. He started cleaning up some of his notes, making lists of what they needed to do.
And when he got a text from Jonas saying the man didn’t survive the crash, Jerricho swore. He picked up the phone and called him. “I didn’t kill him,” he said.
“No,” he said, “he took a head injury, and his chest took a severe blow. Looks like he had a heart attack at the same time right afterward. Anyway he’s gone,” Jonas said. “We’re doing our best to pick up what we can when we knock on everything in his life. You know how that works,” he said.
“Yep,” he said, “I do know how it works. Let me know if you find anything.”
“What are your plans now?”
“As much as I’d like to follow up and find whoever ordered the attack,” he said, “I need to get Brenna back to the US.”
“That would be good,” he said. “You cause enough chaos every time you and your buddies are in town.”
“I hear you,” he said, “but we’ll be back. Don’t worry about that.” And, still grinning, he hung up. He sent a message to Diesel, catching him up on the events to date.
LOL. MI6 isn’t that bad, he texted. Make arrangements for flights out in the morning.
That would be good, Jerricho wrote. And then I’m not sure what comes after this.
It could be all kinds of things, Diesel typed. Depends on what you want.
More of the same would be good but maybe not quite the same people.
No, we try not to keep the same scenarios going.
Yep, I know. I hear you. I just … This doesn’t feel finished.
It will be. Just hold tight, and it will be.
With that, Jerricho closed the chat window. As he did, he heard Killian’s voice behind him. He turned, looked, and smiled to see his buddy standing there with a cup of coffee. “You good now?”
“I feel quite renewed,” Killian said. “You go crash.”
“I will.” Leaving Killian in the living room, Jerricho headed into the other room, where Brenna slept so peacefully. He quickly stripped off his outer layer of clothing and pulled up the bedcovers and crawled underneath. She rolled over and blinked up at him. He whispered, “Go to sleep,” he said. “It’s all well.”
She blinked several more times, reached her arm out, and curled it around his waist. He pulled her close and whispered, “It’s okay. Just sleep.”
She smiled and said, “It’s okay because I’m tucked up against you,” she murmured.
He smiled and waited, as her breathing slowed, and she fell asleep again. He let himself drift off, knowing he needed sleep, since they were heading out on another trip tomorrow, and they had no way to know where and when the next attack would come from. When he woke a little later, he felt like he was in a sauna. He rolled over, groaning, his erection lifting the covers.
She murmured, “That’s a hell of a way to wake up.”
“Ouch,” he said, trying to shift up and away, only her hand was wrapped around him. He looked down at her and said, “Unless you really want to go this direction,” he said, his voice gritty, “please remove your hand.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” she said, gently sliding it up and down.
He collapsed back in bed, gritting his teeth, groaning ever-so-slightly, trying to keep it contained. “You have no idea,” he said, “how much I want to follow through on this.”
“Good,” she said, rising up over him and straddling him.
He gasped. She was 100 percent nude and gleaming in the moonlight. “Are you sure?” he asked, twisting beneath her, desperate to have her say yes but, at the same time, not wanting to push, not wanting to make any assumptions here. He’d always cared about her. Had never expected to see her again. But this person he now knew was so different from the Brenna he’d known before, and, honest to God, this one was a hell of an improved model. He really respected her. And he didn’t want to do anything that would upset a chance of them having a future together.
“Yes,” she whispered. “This is exactly what I want. It’s exactly where I want to be too.” She leaned over and gently licked his bottom lip.
He groaned, twisting, his body already shaking with emotion, knowing that he was so damn close already. He said, “I can’t hold back.”
“I wasn’t planning on it myself,” she said, slowly rising, rubbing up against his shaft. When she was over the top, she slowly lowered herself, even while he tremored underneath her. He arched, his hips slamming up hard, as his hands grabbed her waist, holding her firm, as he slammed into her several times. He opened his eyes to see her jerk above him, grabbing his hands and holding them against her breasts, as she took over the motions, her mouth open, passion soaring across her body, and he realized just how absolutely glorious she was. She always was wild, almost unattainable, when they were making love before. He’d never forgotten it, and it had been partly their sexual relationship that had kept him enthralled so long, when he should have left earlier.
And he couldn’t get enough. Now it was like, this was the time, this was them, this was what they needed, and he couldn’t even begin to let go. But emotions overtook him, passion drove him, and he plunged up high, holding her firm, feeling his climax ripping through him. It was all he could do to keep his voice quiet, as he bit down hard, his body shaking uncontrollably. She collapsed, her body trembling just as badly and still trembling in his arms. After he wrapped her up tight, he realized that, even though it had been close, they’d still both made it together.
Feeling an incredible heatwave wrapping around him and even through him, he whispered, “My God.”
“It was always like this for us,” she said.
“I know,” he said. “I know. It was one of the reasons it was so hard to leave.”
“It was still the best thing,” she said. “And maybe … maybe you’ll come to forgive me.”
“No forgiveness needed,” he said. “I keep telling you that.”
“Maybe if you tell me often enough,” she said, the sadness in her eyes heartbreaking, “I’ll believe you.”
“I could just kill your judgmental family and Princeton too,” he said, gently brushing up under her chin. “You’re a beautiful person. You were a little misguided. Yet you’ve done what you needed to do, and you’ve changed,” he said. “This person that is you is absolutely stunning, inside and out.”
She looked up at him. “Do you mean that?”
“Of course I mean it,” he said. “I’m really proud of all that you’ve done for yourself.”
She smiled. “It wasn’t easy.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t,” he murmured. And he knew it wouldn’t have been. Making any change was hard, but making a change on that level would have been excruciating. “You were always very honest,” he said, “and that’s what we need going forward.”
She collapsed back against him. “Okay,” she whispered. “As long as you don’t leave me.”
“I wasn’t planning on it, sweetheart.” And he kissed her again.
“You would have waited to make love until we got back home again, wouldn’t you?”
“I was. How’d you know?” he said.
She looked up at him, smiled, and said, “Because you’re too honorable.” She added, “I figured I would have to seduce you. Otherwise you would try to make it a long-distance thing.”
“And was that wrong?”
“I didn’t want to wait,” she said simply. “I care about you too much.” She shrugged. “I’ve been wanting this since I first saw you again.”
“Ditto,” he murmured, pulling her up close. “And still you need sleep,” he said.
“And maybe now I will,” she said. She cuddled up close. “You sleep too.” And she closed her eyes.
He held her close, his heart so damn full.
Chapter 13
Brenna woke up the next morning, a big smile on her face. As she slipped from bed, she winced at the soreness. They’d woken up, made love, and then crashed, several more times. Now she just felt renewed, blessed, and complete in so many ways. She had a quick shower, and, when she came out, he was sitting up, rubbing his face.
“The shower’s empty, if you want to jump in,” she said. “I’ll get dressed.”
He nodded and had the fastest shower she ever thought possible. When he came back out, she was still drying off and working on her hair. He smiled. “Do you still take forever to get dressed?”
She chuckled. “I didn’t think so, but according to you, maybe.” She pulled out the last of the clothes that they had been given and went to shake it out, when something fell free. She looked at it in surprise. “Oh, my God,” she said. She dove to the floor and picked it up. She held it out to him. “This is Jessie’s.”
He took it from her.
She picked up the pants, studied them, and said, “These are Jessie’s pants.”
“You mean, your clothing got mixed up?”
“Yes,” she said, “obviously.” She looked at the underwear and said, “The underwear and the bra’s mine, but the T-shirt and the pants are hers.” She quickly dressed in her underwear and pulled the T-shirt over her head. It was tight because she was bustier than Jessie was. “But this is hers.”
He looked at it and crossed his eyes. He dressed just as fast and asked her, “Can you wear her pants?”
She struggled into them and said, “They are damn tight.”
He grinned and gave a wolf whistle. “They also look damn fine.”
She rolled her eyes at him, and they quickly raced out to the living room.
Killian was there. He looked up and grinned when he saw them. “Well now, maybe you’ll be easier to live with.”
“We weren’t hard to live with at all,” she said. “Look what we found.” Jerricho held it up and explained.
Killian looked at it and asked, “Is that Jessie’s USB key?”
“Yes,” Brenna cried out. It was like a little flute, like a charm for a woman’s bracelet or a chain. Brenna pulled it open, and inside was the digital storage microdisk. Immediately they walked to the laptop. As soon as they brought it up, she whistled. “This is exactly the footage out of China. So that’s what Jessie was trying to take back out of here?” Brenna asked.
“I don’t know if it would have been all that dangerous for her to take out of the US,” Jerricho said, “but it certainly would have been dangerous if China knew.”
“And maybe that’s all it was. Maybe she was doing it for China,” Brenna said quietly. “Or maybe Jessie was using it to blackmail them.”
“If she was trying to fund a new life,” Killian said, “she might have been that foolish.”
Just then Brenna’s phone rang. She put the Unknown Caller on Speakerphone.
They all heard the distraught voice of Jessie. “Have you got it?”
“I just
found it,” Brenna said. “No thanks to you though. You sent somebody to kidnap me.”
“He was supposed to get the key,” she said. “How the hell did you end up with my pants anyway?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s not as if we had much time together before we parted ways.”
“I know. What will you do now?”
“This will go back to where it came from,” she snapped. “And you, if you had anything to do with my kidnapping, you had better run and stay the hell away from me. Because now it’s not just me who has a copy. It’s already been uploaded to the cloud for safekeeping,” she lied. “The question is whether we’ll give it to MI6.”
“The government’s paying me,” she said dully. “And that money was supposed to fund my husband’s military career.”
“You mean, the army he’s building?”
“He’s in espionage,” she said. “He wanted the weapons for home.”
“It doesn’t matter where he wanted the weapons for. You’re not getting this,” Brenna said. “Where are you?”
“Like I’ll tell you,” she said, “but I’m not in England anymore.”
“You may not want to stick around your boyfriend either, depending on how he feels about all this.”
“He already knows,” she said and then cried out slightly.
“Did he hurt you?”
“Yeah, of course he did,” she said, “but I snuck out, away from him. I’m heading onto one of the smaller islands, where I won’t get recognized and where nobody will care. I failed. He punished me. He doesn’t want me, and, if I’d stayed, he’d have likely killed me. I’ll be left to raise this child alone.”
“If you’re even pregnant,” Brenna snapped, not sure where the deceit started and stopped with her supposed friend.
“I am,” she said, “but I don’t know if it’ll survive the beating.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said. “As long as you’re away and safe, you should be able to heal.”
“I will. I was just hoping I could have that key, so I could fund my life, when I get wherever.”
“You could try a job,” she said, “an honest one this time.”